Lagos State Planning and Environmental Monitoring Authority, LASPEMA, has concluded plans to open a district office at Igando-Ikotun Local Council Development Area before the end of the second quarter of the year 2020 as part of efforts to regulate the operations of informal business owners along the axis.

Speaking during a site assessment tour of Igando-Ikotun LCDA, the Acting General Manager, LASPEMA, Engr. Kazeem Waheed Olanrewaju expressed his determination to ensure the agency had offices in the five divisions of Lagos, namely Ikorodu, Badagry, Ikeja, Lagos Island and Epe in a bid to properly identify and designate urban spaces for the informal business sector in Lagos.

In his words, “As much as Lagos, the commercial nerve centre of Nigeria is doing everything possible under the ambit of the law to support the informal business sector for poverty eradication and entrepreneurial development, the need to regulate its operations cannot be emphasised enough”.

He explained that the move became imperative as the number of business owners in the informal business sector in the zone had increased appreciably, as such it is vital to engage stakeholders on the need to follow the operational guidelines stipulated by the Agency in line with its mandate.

Olanrewaju averred that the proposed District Office will be located within the local government premises and serve as a reference point for the Agency in the zone, particularly for monitoring and enforcement of urban aesthetics, record-keeping of all permits and clearance for designated locations of informal business activities.

Other activities of the Agency in the zone will include removal of illegal structures on non-approved locations as well as reclamation and regeneration of designated locations for better urban aesthetics.

Chairman of Igando-Ikotun LCDA, Morenike Williams, who received the team at the Council Secretariat, opined that the informal business sector is the panacea to the unemployment rate in the State in furtherance of the present administration’s T.H.E.M.E.S agenda.

She lauded the efforts of LASPEMA in its commitment to ensuring a regulated informal business sector in the State, promising to do everything possible to see that LASPEMA establishes an office in the locality.

In a related development, the acting General Manager LASPEMA, Engr. Kazeem Olanrewaju also visited Egbe-Idimu Local Council Development Area on a pre-survey exercise regarding the use of Lagos Urban Open Spaces for Informal Business as stipulated by the Urban Regional Planning and Development Law 2010.